It’s Not MY Problem!

I’m probably having more fun than I should be as I pick the images I use when posting these. Still thinking of Shrek and the Lord Farquaad character, I used a donkey for the last one; partly because I liked the movie that much and partly because someone acting like that in a leadership role is typically thought of as a real, well, donkey… But enough of my nonsense, let’s move on.

That last quality of a bad leader we looked at, the idea of Do as I Say, Not as I Do, is really tough to swallow when it’s someone we report to. They may have some level of authority but they’re certainly not leading. And that ties right in with the next quality of a bad leader: not accepting responsibility…

I still do a fair amount of interviews and one of the most frequent things I hear when asking candidates why they’re considering a change is that the person they report to routinely takes credit for their successes but is quick to place all them when something goes wrong. I can’t speak for you, but I’d have a hard time following someone who does that. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed to work for several folks who did the opposite; passing along tons of credit and accepting all the blame for anything less than positive.

Interestingly enough, there seems to be a degree of popularity in society currently with not accepting responsibility. While there’s far more that I could point to than I could ever squeeze in here, I’ll just stick with a quote I’ve heard referenced a few times lately…

“I’m responsible for what I say but I’m not responsible for what you hear” was in a post I saw on social media recently. I received a similar comment in a response to an email I shared a while back in this series referencing The Platinum Rule. If I had just a bit more time when I saw the post on social media, my reply would have read “said no leader ever…” Since I knew that would have started a fight that I didn’t have time for, I left it alone.

Consider just how negatively that approach could impact the team around, especially if you really do have responsibility for leading them! I can’t point to a single example where it would be OK for anyone in a supervisory or management role to say “I read the instructions to you so it’s not my problem if you didn’t follow them.” The individuals on our team should certainly be held accountable, but we’re not supervising, managing, or leading if we’re not willing to provide them with all the tools they need in order to perform their jobs successfully.

When we are willing to invest the time and energy into making sure the message our team hears is indeed the message we intended to deliver, we show them that we are truly willing to accept responsibility and that we value their contribution in the process! Expecting them to achieve the desired results without being willing to do what’s required of us leads us to the next quality of a bad leader. We’ll look at that next time...